UW scientist Armando Lanaro (left) and Dan Wenman (right), an engineer at the UW Physical Sciences Laboratory, install one of the specialized particle-detecting chambers on the CMS — one of the two main particle detectors — in 2003. The UW built a large portion of the detector, with many of the pieces designed in Wisconsin, then shipped to CERN and assembled on site.Image credit: Dick LovelessPhoto date: 2003

Paradox of size: It will take the biggest and most powerful accelerator ever built to catch a glimpse of the tiniest atomic particles that form all matter. The accelerator, called the Large Hadron Collider or LHC, will slam particles together up to 600 million times per second at nearly the speed of light, smashing them open inside two main particle detectors, called ATLAS, shown at left, and CMS.Image credit: CERN

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